Hostage Taking Philippines | Quirino Grandstand | Hostage Taking

Hostage Taking Philippines - Quirino Grandstand - August 23, 2010

I am currently watching the hostage drama on the television while I am writing this post. Details about the hostage taking is not yet complete, but here are some of the information that I know.

1.) The hostage taking started 7am today, August 23, 2010 (update: hostage drama started at around 9am)
2.) The initial hostages is 25 persons
3.) The hostage taking happened on the bus.
4.) The hostage taker released some of the children and old persons.
5.) The driver which was previously seen on handcuff somehow managed to jump off the window and escaped from the bus.
6.) The driver said that all of the remaining hostages inside the bus were all dead.
7.) The assault team had attempted to enter the bus, but some gun shots was fired by the hostage taker.
8.) The hostage taker's relatives were all arrested, and taken by force.
9.) Most hostages are foreigners.

Media men are all over the hostage area, all channels are monitoring the hostage taking, no commercial break.

Updates

13.) Ex - SPO2 Mendoza shots his automatic riffle, a civilian was hit and taken to the hospital
14.) Rain is getting heavier which prevents authorities to pursue any aggressive actions.
15.) This is suppose to be the last day of the hostages as tourists in the country.
16.) Another tear gas was thrown inside the bus.
17.) Gun shots were heard right after the tear gas was thrown.
18.) Many gun shots is again are heard.
19.) A body was hanging on the main door of the bus, seems to be dead.
20.) Authorities is trying to confirm if the hanging body is the hostage takers.
21.) Authorities are waving their hands, signaling that the area is clear
22.) The dead body is confirmed to be the hostage takers, hostage takers is dead.

23.) There are hostages found to be alive.
24.) Ambulance is taking the hostages.
25.) So far, four alive hostages are confirmed and rescued.
26.) Heavy rain is still pouring on the hostage taking area.
27.) Ron, abs-cbn's field reported said that the authorities retrieved guns and long knives.
28.) A woman was rescued from the bus, the woman is unconscious but was reported to be alive.
29.) Another woman was retrieved, but said to be dead.
30.) Hostage taker was gunned by a sniper.
31.) Two dead persons were confirmed dead.
32.) Another woman on her late 50s was rescued, she's walking.
33.) Ambulances are going back and forth to the hostage scene
34.) Another body was retrieved, unconfirmed if it's dead or just unconscious.

UPDATE:
(After the hostage taking drama)
35.) The full name of the hostage taker is ex - Sr. Inspector. Ronaldo Mendoza.
36.) Sniper is confirmed to have killed the hostage taker, hostage taker was hit on the head, authorities confirmed to the media on channel 7 that the reporter saw was the hostage taker's brain, according to the reporter's interview to the sniper himself.
37.) The hostage drama is now trending on twitter.

Media men are all over the hostage area, all channels are monitoring the hostage taking, no commercial break.

PHOTOS:

The three pictures above shows that the assault team is trying to get inside the bus.
Above - Policemen are on standby besides the bus
Above - The picture above shows the bus and the assault men on standby
Above - A brave unshielded policeman is trying to know the hostage taker's location.
Above - The bus on flat tire
Above - The assault team with their guns pointing on the bus
Picture above shows how close policemen on the bus.
Picture above shows the crowd of policemen with their guns pointing to the bus.
Above - A silhouette of the tensioned authorities while hostage taking is still in action.
Above - The bus and the authorities besides.
Picture above shows the aftermath of gunshots on the bus' wind shield.

to clear some questions. Officer mendoza was relieved from duty because of former cases. Because of that, he will never have any retirement pay or any privileges. The situation would have been better but the information given by the bus driver gave problems. when he was able to escape he just told the police that everyone was dead. That is why they plan to question the driver as well since the misinformation led to many wrong decisions by the police...

this situation should alert our president how to educate our police force in handling hostage situations. there was noticeable lack of or possibly no coordination on the part of the police. it is possible that gunshots from the police hit the hostages. no police line or block was made to handle crowd control. if there was more than one hostage taker, they can easily escape into the crowd without anyone noticing. shameful shameful...but this should be an eye opener to our government. to the busybodies, hope you get shot like the other one so you can learn your lesson...

Some Police could not protect themselves from cases because they don't have enough money to pay a lawyer...dahil sa may influence, mayaman at palakasan system pa rin kaya? Kawawa naman ang mabuting pulis...

oh my God, what happened to all the trainings they did before the incident? are they only good during trainings? the whole world is watching the philippines, a single hostage-taker against many assault police who are not even ready to handle the situation. Look at them not even a single gas mask though they knew they would be using tear gas, no body protector of vests, ano sila-nasa pelikula ala-ramon revilla? pinoy, naman, naman, naman, hanggang porma na lang ba kayo>?

Suggestion: "When typing updates, make sure you draft them first using Ms-word. By that, you can determine if you are having grammatical errors or something. That will make your Blog way better for sure! Right? Goodluck!"

goodbye tourism. sayonara to our hospitality industry. hostage taking is now trending in twitter. just imagine how many people have twitter account. *facepalm* May rumor pa tuloy na banned ang mga Filipinos in HK. paano na ang mga OFW dun? grabe, dami talaga naapektuhan. Many students are not able to cram for their school stuffs.

SORRY FOR MY GRAMMATICAL ERRORS, BUT I CAN'T USE MSWORD BECAUSE I AM TYPING EVERYTHING LIVE. IF YOU CAN SEE, EVEN MY NUMBERING IS OFF.GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IS NORMAL FOR A NON AMERICAN LIKE ME, AND I DON'T HAVE ANY PLAN EDITING IT.

AS I SAID, ON MY FIRST SENTENCE, I AM DOING THE POST'S UPDATES WHILE THE HOSTAGE DRAMA IS HAPPENING. NOT EDITING THIS POST WILL RETAIN ITS INTEGRITY I BELIEVE.

officer mendoza was very cooperative in the earlier part of the hostage drama,the situation would have stayed under control until the police committed a fatal mistake of maltreating the family of officer mendoza. it was clear that the ground commander was not handling the situation with expertise. the police who mishandled the family of officer mendoza should be held responsible for what officer mendoza has done.

i appeal to the president of the philippines, his excellency Noynoy. i voted for you Sir please don't let me down, use your intelligence and do what is right. bring justice both to officer mendoza and the hostages. such brutal end wouldn't have happened if the police made the right move!

If that's how you feel, then do something about it. Do not just complain and do nothing. If you think you're better than the police, then why don't you join them and lead them? If you think the media people are being stupid, then why don't you apply yourself in every media station and change them inside and out? It's better than complaining and bad mouthing your own country.

What are the news for? It's not for us to complain about, or to lose hope and be discouraged. It's for us to know what our country lacks and it is to encourage us to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT instead of just COMPLAINING, people.

why did he have to do such drastic act? what pushed him? they said he's got a case..point taken but then, what pushed him to do such thing? there are b-side to every story.He's wrong,he's definitely wrong because those were civilians, tourists enjoying our country.it took almost 10 hours before such killing happened..and it happened when his brother was arrested.policemen should have waited for the hostage taking to finish before they will start questioning the brother.If i am the hostage taker and they took some of my family members to question-I, too will be doing a crazy act just to get what I want.come on people..bobo sa strategy mga pulis natin..common sense must be first on their training before they can be called POLICEMEN.

If that's how you feel, then do something about it. Do not just complain and do nothing. If you think you're better than the police, then why don't you join them and lead them? If you think the media people are being stupid, then why don't you apply yourself in every media station and change them inside and out? It's better than complaining and bad mouthing your own country.

What are the news for? It's not for us to complain about, or lose hope and be discouraged. It's for us to know what our country lacks and it is to encourage us to do something ABOUT IT instead of just whining."

@10:13 then what do u expect us to do? do everything ourselves? we criticized because there were mistakes that should have been prevented. at isa pa kung laging ganyan ang justification natin sa lahat ng pagkakamali then prepare yourself for more stupidity and maybe GOD forbid that it would happen to you. tama ung sabi ng isang poster MISTAKES ARE NOT AN OPTION when your life is at stake

According to his personal data sheet, he has garnered 17 awards and commendations from the PNP, including multiple citations of the Medalya ng Papuri (PNP Medal of Commendation), the PNP Badge of Honor, the Medalya ng Kasanayan (PNP Efficiency Medal), Medalya ng Kagalingan (PNP Merit Medal) and the Medalya ng Paglilingkod (PNP Service Medal), and a Letter of Commendation.

thanks for agreeing jose, with all due respect to 10:13, the point that we are after is for those responsible be put to justice, penalized and reformed. are we going to let this go and be sorry if another hostage taking incident happens exactly the same as what happened today because we don't want to scrutinize and correct our co-filipinos?

Let this event be a wake-up call to the members of the PNP. We should be vigilant in crying out loud that they committed lapses which warrants correction.

How can someone change if he does not know his mistake. Dwell on this 10:13.

they always put the blame to the policemen..Kung makapagsalita kayo parang magagawa nyo yun pagkayo nandun..even the most intelligent guy or an expert on his field can commit a mistake..Mas lalo na pag real life situation db?my mga plans ka na but still you can't apply them cause you have factors to consider..

The relatives of the hostage taker went to the scene as they were asked by this hostage taker who is an ex-cop to be his emissary thru text messages. Instead when they arrive at the scene they were all arrested by the PNP and immediately charge them as an accessory to the crime! It was totally crazy when the PNP harassed these relatives of the guy and tried to push them inside their vehicle. As a result the ex-cop fired to his victims at point blank range.

For all those people defending this cop who got sacked. Uhm, go research first. This dude wasn't a hero or some guy exposing corruption in the police force. Neither was he the poor cop who got laid off for pissing off some officials. He isn't the victim. Here's what he did. It's on the inquirer site too http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20100823-288385/Who-is-this-hostage-taking-cop

says here:

Who is this hostage-taking cop? By Alcuin PapaPhilippine Daily InquirerFirst Posted 11:33:00 08/23/2010

Filed Under: Tourism, Crime, PoliceMost ReadMANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE 2) Despite winning an award as Jaycees International’s Ten Outstanding Policemen of the Philippines (TOPP) in 1986, the police officer who held hostage a busload of Chinese tourists from Hong Kong in Manila was dismissed from the service earlier this year for extortion and for forcing a chef to swallow “shabu.”

According to records in Camp Crame, Senior Inspector Rolando Del Rosario Mendoza was dismissed by Office of the Ombudsman early in January together with four other policemen. They were stripped of their retirement benefits. Mendoza was also disqualified from holding any position in the government service.

And yeah, I think the cops are idiots, they shouldn't have let the media film them busting the cop's relatives. Not the media's fault, they were just doing their jobs, reporting news. The cops should have stop them from reporting it right away though. Responsibility ng police na sabihing bawal nila muna irreport for the sake of the hostages.

Mga bobong pulis.

And please, those people defending the hostage taker, HE HAS NO F-ING RIGHT TO BE DEFENDED. Think about the people that died. Try defending that hostage taker to the families of those hostages that got shot. Eh kung kapatid mo yung pinatay niya, idedefend mo pa ba siya?

For all those people defending this cop who got sacked. Uhm, go research first. This dude wasn't a hero or some guy exposing corruption in the police force. Neither was he the poor cop who got laid off for pissing off some officials. He isn't the victim. Here's what he did. It's on the inquirer site too http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/metro/view/20100823-288385/Who-is-this-hostage-taking-cop

says here:

Who is this hostage-taking cop? By Alcuin PapaPhilippine Daily InquirerFirst Posted 11:33:00 08/23/2010

Filed Under: Tourism, Crime, PoliceMost ReadMANILA, Philippines—(UPDATE 2) Despite winning an award as Jaycees International’s Ten Outstanding Policemen of the Philippines (TOPP) in 1986, the police officer who held hostage a busload of Chinese tourists from Hong Kong in Manila was dismissed from the service earlier this year for extortion and for forcing a chef to swallow “shabu.”

According to records in Camp Crame, Senior Inspector Rolando Del Rosario Mendoza was dismissed by Office of the Ombudsman early in January together with four other policemen. They were stripped of their retirement benefits. Mendoza was also disqualified from holding any position in the government service.

And yeah, I think the cops are idiots, they shouldn't have let the media film them busting the cop's relatives. Not the media's fault, they were just doing their jobs, reporting news. The cops should have stopped them from reporting it right away though. Responsibility ng police na sabihing bawal nila muna irreport for the sake of the hostages.

Mga bobong pulis.

And please, those people defending the hostage taker, HE HAS NO F-ING RIGHT TO BE DEFENDED. Think about the people that died. Try defending that hostage taker to the families of those hostages that got shot. Eh kung kapatid mo yung pinatay niya, idedefend mo pa ba siya?

The Philippine Police are poorly trained, poorly equipped officers and men. How if the hostage taking happened in a huge passenger airliner? Big death tolls? US or Canadian commandos have a door blaster and it could blast anything the size of a door in seconds! In one crisis in Great Britain when an international airliner was hi-jacked and it landed on British soil. The British commandos used this door blaster to the planes 4 doors and they swarmed in fully covered with vests and bullet proof helmets in just seconds.

I think if they were able to blast in in full battle gear that would have scared the shit out of the hostage taker and they could have shot him without him hurting anyone. Instead, they decided to throw in tear gas. 1 man against the PNP. this guy managed to kill hostages and hole up for 12 hours. WTF!

In 1986, the Jaycees International awarded Mendoza its Ten Outstanding Policemen of the Philippines (TOPP) award.

According to his personal data sheet, he has garnered 17 awards and commendations from the PNP, including multiple citations of the Medalya ng Papuri (PNP Medal of Commendation), the PNP Badge of Honor, the Medalya ng Kasanayan (PNP Efficiency Medal), Medalya ng Kagalingan (PNP Merit Medal) and the Medalya ng Paglilingkod (PNP Service Medal), and a Letter of Commendation.

He was born on January 10, 1955 in Naic, Cavite. He has two sons and a daughter with wife Aurora, who are now based in Banadero, Tanauan, Batangas. He was supposed to retire next year. One of his sons, Bismarck, is deputy chief of the Bangued police station in Abra with a rank of inspector. He was reported to have taken a trip to Manila when he heard of the hostage-taking.

Mendoza graduated from the Philippine College of Criminology with a BS degree in Criminology.

He entered the PNP in April 1981 as a patrolman through the defunct Integrated National Police (INP). In January 1991, he was absorbed into the PNP with the rank of Senior Police Officer 3 with the Western Police District (WPD), now known as the Manila Police District. He was promoted to Inspector in May 2002 and as a Senior Inspector in August 2005.

In June 2008 a few months after Kalaw filed charges against him, Mendoza was shipped out to the provincial police office of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). But this reassignment never materialized as he served a 90-day suspension.

No doubt what captain Mendoza did was wrong. But if we take a look at his side of the story, we may come to realize that he was a victim of injustice. Based on his background info, he rose from the ranks of a patrol man way up to police senior inspector. In 2008 he was accused of being part of some illegal drug issue. He was suspended of his duties for 90 days for being accused of partaking in the drug issue. No one actually proved that he was guilty. After serving his 90 day suspension, he was reinstated. But in 2009, the PNP leadership dismissed him because they said he had bad reputation already since he was once falsely accused. What came worse was that the PNP didn’t even grant him his retirement benefits. This probably depressed, angered, and aggravated him, leading to the Quirino hostage taking. Again, what he did in Quirino was wrong. But we should know that he was the by-product of PNP injustice. The PNP has created a monster out of a humble policeman.

No doubt what captain Mendoza did was wrong. But if we take a look at his side of the story, we may come to realize that he was a victim of injustice. Based on his background info, he rose from the ranks of a patrol man way up to police senior inspector. In 2008 he was accused of being part of some illegal drug issue. He was suspended of his duties for 90 days for being accused of partaking in the drug issue. No one actually proved that he was guilty. After serving his 90 day suspension, he was reinstated. But in 2009, the PNP leadership dismissed him because they said he had bad reputation already since he was once falsely accused. What came worse was that the PNP didn’t even grant him his retirement benefits. This probably depressed, angered, and aggravated him, leading to the Quirino hostage taking. Again, what he did in Quirino was wrong. But we should know that he was the by-product of PNP injustice. The PNP has created a monster out of a humble policeman.

I too think that the police made big mistakes during that incident and that justice must be given. And I could make a lot of critics about their tactics and etc. but didn't bother because all of you are already doing it. And that was insulting of you to think that I took lightly of the mistakes of our police force and the lives of those Chinese tourists. That previous post was merely addressed to Filipinos who criticized and gave up hope for their country without even doing anything. I think the better option is to do something, may it be sending critic letters to the media station for being idiots and getting in the way, or to the police force directly, instead of only grumbling and saying Philippines sucks. I'm just emphasizing on "All words, no action" kind of personality, though I'm mainly pointing out to those who gave up on their country.

comments that just say philippines has no hope or it sucks just shows what kind of thinking many of the people here have.. They should realize that comments like that is not helping.. better to give comments that can help in changing the way we see the philippines in a proper way in order for good changes to come...

SWAT's new meaning : Sugod....Wait....Attack...Tago....This is really frustrating. If not because of the arrest of his brother which was covered live, this could have been avoided. Di nila alam, the hostage taker is monitoring everything inside the bus. My TV pala don...Tanga talaga ang PNP... Ano kaya na naman kaya alibi nila bukas? I've blog about my frustrations too.. MiNDFRAMES and THOUGHTS

Let's just pray that no more incidents like this will happen in the future and that we, Filipinos including government, media and ordinary citizens, are to reflect, learn and make positive changes so we will all be able to redeem our nation.

Thank you for the details, man. It was horrible for all of us. Let us pray for peace and harmony for our country. May the human follies be corrected; may our strengths be capitalized more.Godspeed to all of us!

if someone ask for your nationality,what would you answer? would you still be proud to say that your a filipino after this incident? this is really a big shame to our country,this would affect the tourism,like what p-noy said,theres something that trigger the hostage taker to kill the hostages and that is when his family was forcely arrested by these stupid police! things would not end that way if not bec of the policemen and media.sabi nga nila, npakabait pa daw ng hostage taker kc nkakatulog pa ung mga hostages poz pnakain pa cla. if he's intention is to kill, d na sana nia pnakawalan ung ibang hostages.ung gusto lng nmn nia is mapakinggan ung side nia kaya he requested for media,pro anong ginawa ng mga pulis, db sa mga case na gnyan, dpt pagbigyan mga hostage takers. eh bkt ginalit nila ung hostage taker by arresting his family by force? tama ba nmn un? mga pulis pul2x!! dpt keo hnohostage eH!!

. . . SWAT they say it means SORRY WALA AKONG TRAINING or some say Sugod-Wait-Atras-Takbo., , , but let’s not judge them, after all we are all as one. the best thing that we could do now is to pray for them and pray for those victims. pray for our country, our leaders need righteousness from our God. Blaming will not do a thing and will never change what has been done. We learn from that moment that every police and those in authority in this nation needs the guidance of God. without God’s direction, this country will surely be in vain. there will be more bad things to be happened that the dark force, the evil one, satan will impose to destroy the image of our country. satan knows the truth that Philippines is a christian nation, so he wants to disgrace our name. as a believer, as a christian, let’s all stand together to pray for our country, for our leaders, for our president and those who are in authority, for our rulers, for our lives, for our children, for our land. united in God’s power we will stand.. . . For our muslim brothers, we believe also in you. let’s be united, in your faith we believe, we are all Filipinos, born of freedom from the past and a messanger in this time.. . . For our God, no matter who you are, LET”S PRAY FOR OUR COUNTRY, it’s now the time to be united as one. God bless you all. send me here(stmcom_sham99@keywordspeak.com)thank you

have you ever thought about the lead poisoning that was implicated by the CHINESE PEOPLE? not only 8 people are affected because of that, but hundreds or even thousands all over the world! chinese people would always play safe and put the blame on us! we must not be ashamed of ourselves. it's not every filipino's fault. one mistake is not enough for us filipinos to suffer. we must still be proud and UNITED! let's just pray for everyone and support each of us.